Mercury, the winged messenger from Roman mythology, famous for his speedy delivery, was a symbol for the Postal Service in colonial times. The Postal Service is not only following Mercury's example by quickly processing the mail, but is doing so as efficiently as possible. Great progress has been made in improving mail efficiency processing rates following a series of audits conducted by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) over the last four years. Specifically, we issued 17 audit reports addressing the efficiency of mail processing at 11 facilities with a monetary impact of more than $1 billion, based on eliminating more than 3.4 million workhours.

Management agreed with the recommendations we made in that series of reports, so we recently conducted another audit to determine the progress of the agency in implementing those recommendations through FY 2007 and assess the productivity and service impact of actions taken so far. Among our findings, the Postal Service has reduced workhours by 1.6 million, improved productivity by more than 4 percent, and decreased overtime usage at the majority of the facilities. To read the report in its entirety, click here.

One of the duties of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) is to promote the integrity and efficiency of postal programs. This includes federal programs the Postal Service participates in or contributes to, such as the federal workers’ compensation program.

Philadelphia-based pharmaceutical company Cephalon recently learned that misrepresenting painkillers is going to cost them $425 Million. The Postal Service was paying for some of these drugs for postal employees on workers’ compensation. Click the read button for the complete story.

As we are reaching the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, the world and the way we do business is very different than it was just 8 years ago. Some First-Class Mail has been replaced by e-mail and online transactions. A weakened economy, rising expenses and declining mail volume continues to threaten the U.S. Postal Service's business model. Another challenge is transportation, as the Postal Service operates one of the largest civilian vehicle fleets in the world.

Despite these hurdles, there are many opportunities. Where do you see mail going? How can the Postal Service's transportation network make the best of mail volume declines? Let us know your thoughts and ideas on our “pushing the envelope” blog.